20230416 Sunday Feast Lecture

mūkaṁ karoti vācālaṁ paṅguṁ laṅghayate girim
yat-kṛpā tam ahaṁ vande śrī-guruṁ dīna-tāraṇam
paramānanda-mādhavam śrī caitanya īśvaram
Harihi oṁ tat sat

Jayapatākā Swami: I was thinking how His Holiness Tamāla Kṛṣṇa Goswami, he had the GBC discussing caitanya-līlā in the afternoons. He had spiritualized all the meetings we were having. Anyway, Lord Caitanya, one day He was, He had taken sannyāsa, He had gone to Jagannātha Purī and then He told Lord Nityānanda that We have come down to deliver especially four kinds of people – people who are so foolish, they think they are the body; people who are necessarily they are nīcas, or not born in a very spiritual tradition; those who are fallen, and people who are suffering some distress. Have any of you in your life have experienced any of these four problems? So He was telling this to Lord Nityānanda that, “We left Bengal, and You should go back and finish up what We started.” So, in this way, Lord Nityānanda said that, “I need some people, send some devotees with Me.” And Lord Caitanya gave Him about 40-50 devotees. They were all very wonderful devotees. Just by remembering their names, it says that one can easily get love of Kṛṣṇa. So, Lord Nityānanda went back to Bengal, and the first place they stop is Pānihāṭi. So then Rāghava Paṇḍita, he was preparing for His Deity and he said, “Oh, You have come! How many devotees are You? Come back in one hour after a bath in the Ganges, I will have a feast for 50 people.” Many of you are cooks, you know it normally takes more than an hour to cook a feast for 50. But he was very expert, and so he prepared the feast in an hour. Then He came back and took prasāda and rested and rested and then they started doing kīrtana, and that kīrtana went on and on and on. It went on for days. Lord Nityānanda, He said I am a cowherd boy, “I like kadamba garland, kadamba flowers. Give me a kadamba garland.” Rāghava Paṇḍita said, now it is not the season for kadamba flowers – Lord Nityānanda said, “Just look maybe you will find some.” He went back in the garden and one lemon tree had started producing kadamba flowers! Such was the śakti of Lord Nityānanda. So he made a garland and he came out and gave it to Lord Nityānanda. Then they were chanting, and Lord Nityānanda He sat in the vīrāsana, yoga posture, and each devotee would come before Him and chant and dance in. The kīrtana went on and people they just came to see and pretty soon he had thousands of people here. Once they were there, they could not leave it was such an ecstatic kīrtana! After sometime the devotees became so empowered, one of them was jumping off tree tops, one of them was picking up a tree and dancing with it. Then Lord Nityānanda danced. And when He dances, it is something very special. Lord Caitanya said, “Whenever Lord Nityānanda dances, I will be there.” So while He was dancing, Lord Caitanya who was in South India at that time, He came there to watch. No one could see Him except Lord Nityānanda. At that moment Lord Nityānanda stopped and told everybody that Lord Caitanya is here, “You cannot see Him but He is wearing a special South Indian garland, you can smell Him.” Everyone was smelling! Ahhh! Gaurāṅga! Gaurāṅga! And one after another they started falling in ecstasy, love-gas!

Anyway, this is how the saṅkīrtana started from Lord Nityānanda, the second wave. So He went to various places, Ādi-saptagrām, He went and all the business men, He was engaging them in saṅkīrtana. Then he went to Navadvīpa again. He saw Mother Śacī. Mother Śacī requested Him stay a little time here, because that way I will be able to see You and get Your news. So He was dancing and chanting, He was doing saṅkīrtana around Navadvīpa.

There was one leader of the dacoits, armed robbers. He saw that Lord Nityānanda was wearing diamond earrings, he wore a pearl-necklace, golden necklaces with gems, arm bands with gems, rings with gems. He had silver ankle bells. He said, Mother Caṇḍī has blessed us, all the wealth is in one place. We can steal it from Him very easily! Although he was a brāhmaṇa but he always hung out with thieves, rogues, wicked people. Brāhmaṇas are normally especially very forgiving, kind, but he was cold hearted, he was a serial killer, he would kill in cold blood! Very wicked guy! But somehow, he was born in a brāhmaṇa family. So he got his gang together and said that we can get all the gold, all the silver, diamonds, everything is there on in this one avadhūta. And they were ahhh! lakhs and lakhs of rupees, hundreds of thousands. They came with swords, shields, tridents, daggers, and they were armed to the hilt. They were also dressed!

So, Lord Nityānanda was staying in the house of Hiraṇya Paṇḍita. And this Hiraṇya Paṇḍita, he was a very poor man. But he was a very good devotee. So Lord Nityānanda stayed in his house. And all this gang came, and they spent a spy ahead to check out. He went and saw Lord Nityānanda taking prasāda. The devotees were chanting and dancing. He went back to report what he saw. Bath He is eating rice. And everyone else is awake and they are singing and dancing. The leader, he said, don’t worry they will eat and fall asleep. Let us sit under a tree and wait. They were meditating on Lord Nityānanda. I will steal His diamond earrings! I am going to take His pearl necklace. Each one was saying, they were meditating actually on the form of Lord Nityānanda. But to steal from Him! And one said, “Oh, I want to steal His silver ankle bells.” They were all talking and then they fell asleep. (Snore) They all fell asleep! (Snore) The sun rose and they were still asleep! (snore) Then the crows started to caw, caw, caw! Hey, you are sleeping! You were awake han! They hid all their tridents and swords and things, they put them in a nearby forest. We will come back. The problem is we did not worship Caṇḍī Mā, we have to offer her wine and meat and very nice offerings! Then we can come tomorrow and steal from Lord Nityānanda. So they did their worship and came back the next day. But they did not see where they came from – special strong, each one could take hundreds of them – foot soldiers around the house, they said, “Wow! Must be some king has come to see this Avadhūta and he has brought his soldiers. Let us leave here and come back after a week or so. If they find us, we will be in trouble.” So they came back the third attempt, after a week or so. But this time it became very dark, they could not see, they were blinded, blinded! Some fell in the ditch around the house, some fell in the garbage hole. Their blood was sucked by leaches, insects bit them, some fell in the canal and broke their bones. Aw, aw! It started raining, and hailstorms! They were suffering so much! Then after all this, somehow they retreated and then the brāhmaṇa got his remembrance.

Actually, Lord Nityānanda, He must be the Supreme Lord. And He put us to sleep, He was surrounded by these extra-terrestrial strong beings who had neck beads and long garlands. We fell in the holes and hailstorms and all these things. Actually, all these things happened because He is the Supreme Lord. So somehow Lord Nityānanda gave him mercy and he could realize that he was doing the wrong thing. He came in and he was crying, tears pouring form his eyes and he fell down at the lotus feet of Lord Nityānanda, give me Your shelter, I surrender. Devotees said, “We cannot trust this thief. Maybe he is surrendering but he really he is insincere, he just wants to come in and steal.” Actually, there was a pick pocketer in Bombay, he saw Śrīla Prabhupāda Rolex watch, someone had gifted it to Śrīla Prabhupāda. And he wanted to steal that from Śrīla Prabhupāda. So he came to the temple. Śrīla Prabhupāda engaged him in service and then he revealed to Śrīla Prabhupāda that I actually came to steal from you. But now you changed my heart and Śrīla Prabhupāda gave him a name of Kṛṣṇa, that he is a thief. So it happens.

They though, there is a saying in Bengali, āti bhakti corera lakṣaṇa - too much bhakti is a symptom of a thief. Then Lord Nityānanda asked the brāhmaṇa, tell Me what realization you have had. So he told actually, we came to steal from You. We came to harm You. We came in the night. You made us fall asleep. Second night there were guards around the house. Then we came a third time and we fell in ditches, hailstorms rained on us. Even if we fall on the earth, we trip and fall, we have to take shelter of the earth to stand up! If we offended You, we have to take shelter of You to correct ourselves. But since I wanted to harm you, I wanted to steal from you, I should go in the Ganges and drown myself as atonement. Lord Nityānanda told him that, “It is alright, if you don’t do these sinful things anymore, I will forgive you. I will take all your karma and wipe you clean. So then you try to bring all your thieves, your gang to the dharma path. And get them also take up bhakti.” And so the whole gang surrendered to Lord Nityānanda and they took, they started chanting Hare Kṛṣṇa and they were completely delivered. Haribol! Haribol!

I was thinking, how Lord Nityānanda, He is very humorous. And the people were very rough, people were thieves. He changed their heart, but He did it, He made them go through various tests. This is His sense of humor. Then at the end, they realized that if we try to take from the Supreme Lord, we will be suffering so much. Normally, we don’t get love for Kṛṣṇa so easy, but by Lord Nityānanda’s mercy they all got love of Kṛṣṇa. This dacoit leader, armed robber, he was rolling on the ground, he was crying for mercy! How does someone change to act like that? It is like your mafia dealers or someone, they changed their hearts, how? Normally it is not possible, but with Lord Nityānanda everything is possible. Nitāi Gaurāṅga, Nitāi Gaurāṅga, Nitāi Gaurāṅga!

In Mumbai, I saw many people, there are rushing, there are big crowds in front of Rādhā Rāsabihārī, Sītā Rāma Deities, and not so many of Nitāi Gaura. But actually, it is Nitāi Gaura’s mercy that we are able to appreciate Rādhā Kṛṣṇa and Jagannātha Baladeva Subhadrā. I was telling them they should pray first you should pray to Lord Nitāi Gaura first, and by Their mercy you can actually have love for Rādhā Rāsabihārī and Sītā Rāma Lakṣmaṇa, Hanumān. You are all very fortunate, here were have Nitāi Gaura, you have Rādhā Kālacāndajī, Jagannātha Baladeva, Subhadrā, Haribol! Haribol! You should take Their mercy and run with it. Hare Kṛṣṇa!